Dry Stacking Your Boat

Ok here's the deal,

I'm looking at a boat however I have to run it in salt water and boat has a steal trailer (not good). The complex that I live in will not let me store the boat in their lot. There are a ton of Marinas around here and I'm thinking of letting a marina dry stack it for me... The only place that I have found so far will wash the boat and flush it out after every use, give me unlimited launches, but want $9 per foot if I want to sign a year contract. That works out to about $189 per month.

Does anyone else do this with their boats? If so what are the pro's, con's, etc. Also how much are you paying to have this done?

A while ago I worked at a marina that did this. You want to make sure they have insurance and a guarantee in writing for damage to your boat. It is almost always very safe, but things can go wrong with any human designed system. At the marina I was at, the rack failed and 5 boats were damaged (mostly windshields and seats). You have to make sure that you don't have anything valuable in the boat if you leave it for them to stack. You also need to call ahead for launching.

The price is about right.

We dry stack our boat at Lake Travis. Although, it is a fresh water lake so I can't comment on the flushing and washing. We have been doing it for four years and love it. The only drawback is that they launch between 8am and 5pm. If you want to go out early or late you have to call ahead and make sure they put it down for you either the night before for early am or before they close for late. It's never really been an inconvenience for us. We had a lock on the ski locker on our Sea Ray and we have no locks on our X-2 now. The boat is stored up high and the marina has surveillance cameras. We pay $210.00 per month $30 of that is for trailer storage. If you need gas they fill it and bill you at the end of the month. I just park the car and hop on a golf cart and drive down to my boat which is in the water waiting for me. I like it better than having a wet slip.

I had my I/O in dry storage, and it was pretty convenient. The only problems were learning to remember to call ahead, making arrangements to work on it, and finding a place to tie it up after-hours on a busy day.

The dry stacks I've seen are not particularly inboard-friendly. The prop is a lot closer to steel supports, and that could be a problem. Plus, the intake scuppers for the cooling water and ballast system could rest on the bunks (or the forklift's forks) if the operator was not careful. That didn't look like it would be very cool, either.

Another thought: flushing an I/O is a quick and easy job for one person. If you're getting an inboard, how are they going to do it?

I now have my v-drive on a lift in a slip, and I much prefer this arrangement.